And The Sun Rose
by Bluecookie300
Summary: The sun set on the golden era of the Young Justice Team the day the Invasion ended. Nightwing didn't disappear, didn't breakdown, she simply got up and kept going. But how can the team ever trust her again? And how can she lead a team that refuses to let her? Black Canary decides to interfere before someone gets injured, that is, until team bonding night turns suddenly dark ...
1. Checking In

The sun was bright across the afternoon horizon. For all that Dinah loved her job, sometimes she found it incredibly draining, in all aspects of the word. Young Justice had played such an integral role in the hero community over the years, and being part of the network that made that possible was sometimes more enlightening than she ever really needed or wanted.

Even though Nightwing now acted as both team leader and den mother, Black Canary still dropped in every once in a while for counselling sessions. It was the leagues way of keeping tabs, and Canary's way of ensuring that the children weren't growing up to be as socially stunted as some of her colleagues. (The argument has been rehashed again and again, and even though they couldn't stop the children, that didn't mean that there weren't some psychological consequences to acting as a hero.)

Since the invasion, Black Canary's drop ins had become increasingly frequent. The team was falling apart at the seams. It wasn't obvious on missions, for all that they were essentially children they had the professional aspect of a _work relationship_ down pat, It was during training, during down time that the cracks were beginning to show.

It was only a matter of time before this seeped across.

While Nightwing was still doing bi-weekly training sessions, it was clear that across the board skill levels had stagnated. Advice was simply being ignored or outright opposed, with the team essentially cutting Nightwing from all interaction except for the absolutely necessary. Miss Martian and Superboy in particular seemed to be the worst; anger, betrayal and mistrust the obvious drivers behind rash behaviour.

None of the newer members trusted her enough for the counselling sessions to be of use in resolving the tension. But could she really blame them. When Batman had pulled a similar stunt to Nightwings during the Invasion all those years ago, the league of _adults_ had had such similar reactions. It had taken years for trust to be rebuilt, for the team dynamic to recover.

These children, for that is what they were, were rejecting their leader. Their leader who so desperately and clearly loved them. Who had visibly and psychologically destroyed herself to keep them safe and alive whilst also managing to save all of humanity.

They were children, who saw their hate, the betrayal and the lies and the mistrust. They couldn't see the work, the pain and the sacrifice that had gone into Nightwings plan, couldn't see the motivations and intentions.

And it was destroying them from the inside out. Nightwing herself had already had so many responsibilities. When the league had first asked she had tried to refuse her role as leader, trainer, guardian. It was a short lived refusal but all the same. There was little but her own determination to love and protect keeping her there, and when this got bad enough that she thought the team would be safer without her, things were going to get messy.

Black Canary couldn't really hope that this was going to end well. It was a team of teenagers fighting criminals. Developing the maturity it took to work as a team was the whole _purpose_ of the teams existence, but the lack of it would be its ruin.

* * *

**AN: Hi, so its been awhile but I can't get this story out of my head, and I need to get rid of some angst through torturing my favourite characters. The M rating is for a reason, and there will be references to some pretty heavy themes of rape later on so if your not up for that now's a good time to click awat.**

**Okay so I'm going to be playing with the timeline, as well as combining different aspects of different universes canon to create the context and backstory. So this isn't going to perfectly follow cannon and whatever you read is going to be part of this AU universe. Also just to clarify this is a fem!Nightwing AU. The basic timeline is outlined here:**

**Rachel Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne at age 6, after watching her parents die etc. **

**She discovered he was Batman pretty quickly, but he wouldn't let her be Robin until he had trained her properly which took two years. **

**He finally lets her out in the field at age 8 at which point the whole getting justice for her parents through capturing Zucco happens. **

**At age nine about a year and two months later she meets Wally and Roy. **

**At age 12 Young Justice team is established and season one occurs.**

**At Age 13 1/2 Young Justice disbands for a while after the events of Auld Acquaintances.**

**At Age 14 she moves across the country and is integral in the establishment of the Teen Titans. **

**At Age 14 1/2 Deathstroke begins to blackmail her, which goes on for another 11 months. (The events of this time period are purposefully vague, and no one but Nightwing and Deathstroke truly know what happened)**

**At Age 16 1/2 Nightwing starts dating Starbolt/Koriand'r (male!Starfire). They date for approximately 2 1/2 years.**

**Just after turning 19 the Young Justice team is restarted and Season 2 occurs. [Kid Flash and Artemis have retired, while Aqualad has left the team to be with his villanous long-lost father Black Manta. Miss Martian, and Superboy have been offered a chance to join the Justice League, but have decided to remain with the Young Justice. New members include Beast Boy, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Robin (Tim Drake), Batgirl, Bumblebee, Lagoon Boy, Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark), and Impulse (Bart Allen). ]**

**Endgame occurs when she is 20 1/2. Wally doesn't die, and he and Artemis return to the team part time.**

**The Events of the Story begin 3 months after Endgame.**


	2. Day in and Day out

It was hazy in the early morning hours, when the sun was just about to rise, and the ever present smoulder of the half broken street lights hadn't faded. Rachel had always been a morning person. But when you hadn't made it to bed until four and you had to get up at six, literally everyone would be in the same alarm clock smashing mood.

It was with a muttered but peaceful whisper of "Fuuuuck!" that she pulled herself out of her bed. Makeup went on; colour added to pale skin, under eye bags turned bright instead of grey and the tiny scar across her check hidden behind a distracting shimmer.

Her college class wasn't for another hour, but the cops wanted her to come in to consult on yet another case, and the office needed her signature on some order forms. She'd be dropping by the GPD for some coffee alongside her help, then the Wayne offices where she was sure to be offered some kind of pastry to refuse in favour of fruit.

It was as she walked out her penthouse apartment that she tripped on the doorframe.

"Fuck!" There really would be advantages to living on the better side of town. But distance was good, space from the manor and its inhabitants was needed, even if she could no longer wonder too far 'off the reservation' as Jason would put it.

Six hours later, after an equally boring but useful lecture on the link between the economic state of a city and its political stability Rachel was ready to fall into her bed and never wake up. Unfortunately for her it was Wednesday, and on Wednesday at 3:30 it was time to train the Young Justice team at their new base.

It was going to be a wasted afternoon.

None of them had really listened to or even engaged with the training since the Justice League had gotten back. She really did get it, it was hard to listen to and trust someone to help you when you didn't actually have much faith in them. She had known what the consequences would be when she had initiated the operation. But fuck, if it wasn't starting to get to her.

It was just too much all at once. She had personal shit that she was going to have to deal with soon.

She'd been doing too many jobs for way too long now and she really needed to delegate some shit and just take a couple months to sort herself out.

It wasn't enough to be Nightwing at night, the police academy during the day and the Young Justice team during non-school hours. She couldn't just abandon the teen titans, even if she wasn't the active leader anymore, and when Batman left someone had to step up.

While she'd finished the police academy she'd never actually gotten to work full time at the precinct, instead having to take over for Bruce, taking classes in Business and Economics while stepping in to run Wayne Industries, as well as taking over his night duties. She would never pass as Batman, but Nightwing was suddenly in two cities at once, training the new hooded robin in Gotham and taking down Blockbuster in Bludhaven.

The last year had been crazy, and while the return of the Justice League, and more importantly Bruce Wayne had taken off the pressure, everything couldn't be simply be dumped back in his lap. It would be another couple months before she wasn't trying to do like eight jobs at once.

Fuck, she really wanted to just go to sleep. Maybe she could get Canary in to take over todays session? Maybe the team would actually take some solid advice from _her_ during training. It had reached the point when bringing her in didn't feel as much like the failure it probably represented.

Rachel thought about grabbing lunch before she headed over to the base, there was paperwork to do and reports to write, not to mention an assignment due on Friday. But she was already at the Zeta tube and practically dead on her feet.

_Nightwing B02 _it announced to an empty alleyway.


	3. Upcoming Intervention

Dinah wasn't all that surprised that Nightwing had called her in. She'd gotten to the base to find poor Rachel asleep at the main console of the central mission room. It was with reluctance that she'd gently shaken the girl awake, a hand on the shoulder enough to bring her out of a clearly fitful but deep rest.

There was little confusion in the once Girl Wonders eyes, only resignation and what looked disturbingly like defeat.

"Hey Dinah" was the quiet greeting as she turned away briskly and shut down the computer.

Before Dinah could respond though, a quiet rant practically tumbled out of what should be a half asleep girl, "Sorry to call you in on such short notice, but I've been completely swamped and was hoping you might be able to take over training today. Of course, I'm sure you've noticed the obvious tension between me and the team by now during your sessions, and I think you might get through to them better right now, they just haven't been taking any of my advice."

At this point Rachel had stood up, and moved half was across the room, looking everywhere but at Dinah and seemingly constantly busy with her hands. Dinah followed, becoming more worried at the normally calm and personable Nightwings evasiveness and longwindedness.

"I've been trying to tell Cassie to watch her left side when in close range, and Bart just wont slow down enough to actually execute any of the full-team manoeuvres! Also, you should watch out for Beast Boy, he's become so quiet lately and I think his confidence is really taking a hit, he's becoming way to hesitant and that needs to stop before it becomes a habit. Of course, thinking before you act is always a good thing, which Conner even now could still stand to learn. . ."

"Okay stop," she said quietly as she grabbed Rachel by the shoulders, forcing her to look her in the eyes.

"Even the Flash could see how overworked you are right now and I'm well aware of what's been going on. You need to take some time off, because quite frankly you look like you're on the verge of a breakdown." Rachel was looking away again, but it was with a resigned look in her eye that she pulled away. Dinah followed after her into the main living area,

"I'm not sure if that makeup is actually fooling anyone, but it definitely isn't fooling me. You _know_ that I'm always happy to help and quite frankly I've been expecting you to call me in for the last 3 months."

Rachel visibly stiffened at that but before she could respond the Zeta Tube announced:

" _Blue Beetle B22, Robin B20, Batgirl B16, Impulse B23, Wonder Girl B21"_

As they entered the living area on the way to the training room Rachel turned. They all visibly hardened their stances, stopping in their tracks as they saw their leader in civvies clearly in the middle of a conversation with the once den mother of their team.

Rachel's shoulders rolled back, Nightwing suddenly present within the pencil skirt and crumpled blouse, "Okay guys, Black Canary is going to be taking over todays training session to give you a different perspective. You know the drill, I'll be doing some work in the comms room if you need me."

It was by no means a dismissal, but Robin and Batgirl both visibly scoffed before turning away and leaving for the gym, the others following close behind. Dinah didn't turn to see, but out of the corner of her eye she watched Rachel visibly deflate as they left, clearly resigned but still hurt.

As they parted ways, Rachel to the control room and her following after the preteens, Dinah considered the afternoons schedule. There would be only so much she could do during training. Physical abilities clearly weren't the issue and as cliché as it sounded she needed to force some serious team bonding alongside an extended break for Rachel if any of this was going to be fixed. She might have only been called in as a cover for this afternoons training, but now that she was here she was officially staging an all-out intervention.


	4. Rachel Needs a Break

The Sun was setting by the time Rachel woke up from her accidental nap, not that she could actually see it from inside the windowless base.

'_God_' Rachel thought, leaning her head against the stupidly large computers desk and internally groaning. Black Canary's role in regard to the team was as councillor, but she really hadn't needed to be told what she already knew. She loved that Dinah cared but the all out intervention that was now inevitable was not what she needed.

As much as she loved this team, it was looking like it was time for someone else to step up to lead. At this point it wasn't even about the tension, wasn't about being overworked, wasn't about them hating her for doing the right thing. It was about the fact that even Dinah was starting to notice how close she really was to breaking down.

In all honesty she probably should have taken a break years ago, back when she'd first been made leader of the team. She should have just passed on the intel, settled down and started to actually regularly see a therapist. Fuck, there was no way anyone could have considered her stable had they known, I mean, who was ever ready to handle covert undercover operations to stop the end of the world let alone do so while also dealing with the death of their fiancé and the rediscovery of some serious trauma?

At the time she had known, had known where this was going and how it would end. She had known that they would hate her, hate her for all the reasons batman was so often resented by his colleagues. She had known that everyone would only see her 'sacrificing everything for the sake of the mission.' And look, maybe she had, but is was everything left of herself that she had sacrificed, not the safety of her loved ones, her team.

Maybe it would have been better to tell someone, ask for the help it was so obvious she had needed. But the majority of the Justice League had been gone, and hindsight really was 20/20.

She'd been numb to it all so long. Maybe numb was the wrong word. She had felt so very _raw_ watching Tula die, seeing the team half fall apart at Kaldurs betrayal. And Wally, her once best friend god damn it, he had been so very angry when Artemis had followed, when the team had all but collapsed at the news of her death. But through it she had kept going, because she couldn't lose anyone else, because no one else was going to stop the reach, to step up. Because stopping even for a second would let it all come rushing back.

Because _Fuck_, how was anyone supposed to deal with any of that bullshit, let alone stop an alien invasion at the same time. Rachel had never had time to stop and deal with any of it, and now it was building up. _God_, after the whole Tarantula thing she'd almost completely shattered, you could only push so much trauma down, and triggers starting to grate. She was literally working against her own mind at this point.

And she couldn't even _talk_ to anyone about it, because if any of it ever got back to the Justice League, to Bruce, he'd just fucking break. She'd put so much into hiding it, from not only him but from herself that for it to get out now, he'd never forgive himself. He'd never be able to look her in the eye again. And the likelihood was neither would anybody else.

Rachel had been pushing it all down for so long that to talk about it now would be to talk about all of it. Half of it was only known to her and Slade, the other half only known to her. She'd never even told Kor, and I mean, they'd been fucking engaged before it had all hit the fan. Hindsight was 20/20, and if she could go back now, maybe she would have told him, because who else was there to tell. Kor wasn't an option anymore, and if you hadn't been able to share it with your fiancé, who the hell were you going to share with?

Look at her, half collapsed in the coms room ranting to herself about stupid trauma and things she couldn't change. Instead of doing any of the millions of things she needed to get done, instead of looking after the team that she was responsible for, here she was feeling sorry for herself. She'd always been the one to bounce back with a smile, yet here she was letting Dinah do her job while she moped incoherently. She was just so goddamn tired of it all.


	5. Dinah's Disappointed

Sunset was but an afterimage on the back of her eyelids by the time Dinah finished up the teams training. Half of them had turned up over an hour late and in sour moods, only to change their tune when they saw who exactly was in charge for the afternoon. She had done a relatively easy training, some simple endurance and flexibility drills before some one on one time to give more individualised feedback on close combat.

She hadn't been exactly impressed. While no one on the team performed badly by any stretch of the imagination, none had they shown any improvement. When Rachel had listed off all those warnings to her earlier about individual things to work on, she hadn't even considered that hey would actually be problems.

Dinah knew that if Rachel was listing things off like that, then they had to be issues that were brought up on multiple occasions and had already been appropriately addressed. But here they all were, Wonder Girl not guarding her left side, Impulse working to fast to stay with the team, Beast Boy hesitating and Superboy after all these years letting anger guide his actions. And that wasn't even mentioning the rest of the team.

If Nightwing had truly already warned them, it was extremely telling that these were still ongoing issues. It wasn't even a question of what was going on, it never had been. The team wasn't communicating with it's leader, was outright rejecting her and everything she had to offer. This needed to be fixed and soon, because there was no way in hell Dinah was letting this team out on missions in this state. They might be functioning, but not well, and now that she was aware. if anyone got injured it would be on her.

But the source of this conflict also didn't actually seem to be anger at Rachels actions to prevent the invasion. It seemed to be anger over not being trusted with the details. Megan and Conner seemed to think they should of been told as part of the original team. robin and Batgirl similarly seemed to think that they should have been told as they were also _bats_. And the anger and betrayal seemed to just be seeping outwards from there

Nightwing by herself was already visibly breaking down, and the state of the team seemed to be reflecting that rather than causing it. The team has stopped communicating _because_ it's leader wasn't communicating with them, and from this was seeping mistrust and anger.

They were mostly children, and this was essentially a school yard conflict. Except, they were also hero's responsible for the safety of others, of humanity as a whole. This level of conflict over something so juvenile was astounding. How had it managed to deteriorate to this level?

And seriously, how was it that it was the _bats_ that were the worst of all. For all that they presented a united family front, it was Robin and Batgirl making the most frequent snide remarks under their breath. Neither were conceited, and neither were dumb, but both had clearly missed just how close to breaking their once beloved older sister was.

Nightwing had practically been Tim's mother figure, no matter how young she'd been. That the young detective, the robin best known for his observational skills, was so clearly ignorant about someone who should have been so dear to him?

What the hell had been going on in the Batcave? How had such a tight knit unit unwound so thoroughly? In fact, where the hell was Batman? That goddam brute had always been oh so protective of Rachel, how had he missed all of this?

Black Canary was going to be having a nice long talk with Batman later, she knew he was stuck on monitor duty tonight. But first she had to get this team talking. None of them would be going home tonight, if they were going to act like juveniles, then a juvenile solution it would be. It was time for a team sleepover.


	6. And The Revelations Begin

The moon was out, and this was maybe the most awkward experience of her life. What made the whole situation sadder is that it probably shouldn't have been. Rachel had been to few sleepovers in her lifetime, but all of them had been with teammates. For goodness sake at one point she had straight up lived with her whole team in the Titans Tower.

But here she was, sitting awkwardly on a pillow in a circle of people she was meant to be leading. She had known that it was only a matter of time before Black Canary intervened, had known there wouldn't be any more missions until she was convinced this had been sorted. But who could have predicted such a drastic and immediate intervention. Dinah had always been one for a calm approach. Logical and subtle and well thought out.

Admittedly it was a good idea. Have the team sleepover in the bases living area, force them all to talk the whole thing out. The problem was that the whole lack of communication thing started with her. With all the issues that she hadn't even worked out how to talk to a therapist about yet. How was she meant to talk to them about stuff she'd never told anyone? Half of them were to young to even really understand.

"So, who wants to go first" she startled a little, having not expected Wally to interrupt the pin dropping silence. It was late, and everyone was drooping except for her, which wasn't that just typical?

"Okay seriously guys? Look if we don't have to talk about the main issue here, let's just pretend this is a normal sleepover, with normal teenagers."

"That's not a bad idea wally! We could play like truth or dare or something!" It was Beast boy who got quietly excited. Leaning forwards into the circle from his place at the base of the couch.

"Maybe not truth or dare…" Rachel offered, everyone turning to look at her "… it did kind of end badly last time …"

"If you call Wally with pink hair for a month bad, I call that hilarious" was Artemis' quick response.

"Wing's right, dares get dangerous when superpowers are involved, why not something like never have I ever?"

"Cause Tim, you idiot, most of us can't drink yet, duh" While the original team member all could except for Rachel, it probably wasn't a good idea to give alcohol to 15 and 16 year olds, let alone actual children.

"Cass_iiieeee_, you don't actually have to use alcohol, we can use like pickle juice or something"

"That could be fun, I'll go get the pickle juice and glasses" Megan was off like a shot, the kitchen her dominion even all these years later. Wow, here they were, avoiding talking about their issues after preventing an alien invasion by playing drinking games without drinking. To young for alcohol but not for the literal fate of humanity.

It was Jaime who spoke up as Megan returned, green tinged glasses floating behind her.

"I think that if we do take a sip, if asked we have to explain or tell the story behind why." It was a good idea, and would probably encourage the communication and bonding that Dinah had been aiming for. Typically, it was Bart who jumped up in support first, his glass floating down in front of him.

" Ooooo yesandwecangoroundinacircleifmorethanonepersondrinks!" His excitement had gotten to him but by this point most of the team was fluent in speedster.

"Okay, who wants to ask first? Because right now my mind is completely blank?" Cassie spoke up again.

"Never have I ever … uhhh.. kissed someone" and god wasn't that just typical of this game. Beast boy smiled as literally everyone else in the room took a sip. Rachel was still cringing when impulse asked

"Okay so who has everyone kissed?" Wally and Artemis both looked at each other than everyone else, before Artemis deadpanned

"So obviously I've kissed Wally"

"and I've kissed Artemis" Wally followed on before turning to his Bart, his little brother in all but blood. "Duh, now what's this about kissing someone my dearest, sweetest, most babiest Bart?"

"Uhhmmm, soImightofkissedJaimeatonepointbutitwasonlyonce, pleasedon'tkillhim!" Bart's eyes widened, and Wally melted, but the suspicious look he sent the Blue Beetle said it all.

"Uhmm, moving on, so Tim and I have been dating for a while and that's why we both drank." Cassie seemed hesitant but not unsure of herself as she announced the relationship that everyone had already known about.

"Yeah … my first kiss was with some random guy at a party in 10th grade soo…" Batgirls answer was maybe the most generic and the last one volunteered from the team. No one dared ask Conner or Megan. Everyone knew that they had dated, and that they had broken up and no one wanted to reopen that can of worms. They were both looking away from each other awkwardly when Wally turned his teasing smile towards Rachel.

"So, Miss former Girl Wonder, who has managed to catch your eye and why did I not know about this, as your best friend I demand details!"

"Wally, you know I don't have to tell you everything right? And for goodness sake, I'm almost 21, did you seriously think I hadn't kissed someone yet?"

"Now, now missy, don't avoid the question." He was wagging his finger in her face, smirking as the team grew more curious.

"Fine, it was Starbolt, while we were dating we obviously kissed."

"Starbolt?" Megan asked the question that everyone was clearly thinking.

"You know how there were a couple years while the team wasn't active, yeah, during that time I went out west and was part of a new team out there. Starbolt was on it. He's actually an alien prince from a planet called Tamaran. We dated for like two and a half years."

It was maybe a bit much info to dump all at once, but it was honestly a surprise that they hadn't already known. Had none of them ever checked on her in all that time that she has been essentially m.i.a. from the Justice League?

It was Bart who offered the next question, clearly trying to break the awkward silence that had formed, "Okaaaay, never have I ever, uuhhhh …" looking over at Wally he smirked.

"Never have I ever been engaged." Clearly he had been trying to target Wally and lighten the mood, but no one missed that fact that Rachel had drunk alongside Wally and Artemis. It seemed tonight was going to be the night for sudden and surprising revelations about a love life they probably should have already known about.

"Okay clearly we're missing a lot here Miss Rachel. How the hell have you held out this long." It wasn't Wally that Rachel was paying attention to when he asked, the whole team had been shocked, but it was Tim and Barbara that looked the most so, and Conner who muttered under his breath about secrets and trust.

"You gonna answer Wally Wing?" asked Barbara

"Uhhm, so I was actually engaged to ..uh.. Starbolt …"

"And you aren't any longer why?" It was the obvious question asked expectantly by Beast boy, but one she really didn't want to answer.

"He… well he… died, just before I turned 19. We had planned to have a long engagement but it only ended up having about 3 days."

The room was once again dead silent, and the abject horror on their faces kind of said it all.

"Holy SHIT! Why the fuck would you not tell anyone any of this, like holy hell! I'm like you brother and not one in that family even knew that you were dating someone! What the fuck? I'm so sorry! Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Tim's outburst was uncharacteristic but not unexpected.

"Uuummmm, I kind of though everyone already knew. It was kind of all over the news for like a month across the country. It was a pretty public death."

It was at this moment that Tim and Barbara's belt alerts went off, slicing through the silence of the shock. Guilt was starting to build at the whole revelation. How the hell was Rachel meant to handle this, it was maybe one of the tamest things she hadn't talked about, even if it was one of the most painful things she'd ever dealt with.

"Okay guys I think this is over, Batgirl, Robin, Batman wouldn't have called during a team thing like this if it wasn't absolutely necessary, are u okay to go?" It was maybe the wrong thing to ask, they were both still clearly shocked but they needed to go and the team needed time to process.

Both of them simply nodded, turning numbly towards the Zeta beams and heading off. They had been trained to work under pressure, they'd be okay.

"Okay everyone, off to bed I think we're done for the night and we all need our beauty rest." Rachels tone was very much fake cheerful as she herded everyone towards their rooms. It was clear that she didn't want to answer questions and the team was just generally not sure how to approach this, wasn't sure of what to say.

What do you even say to someone after that anyway?


	7. Tense Shock

Rachel followed closely behind Tim and Barbara through the Zeta beams. It had been a while since the Bats had called all three of them into help with a mission, let alone called them to meet up at the Watchtower for the debrief.

It was an abrupt tonal shift from the juvenile hostility of the intervention sleepover she had just come from as she half stepped into a full gait out of the Zeta.

The calm emptiness of the base hit her as she realised it was Bruce standing before her, not the Bat. A very well built, clearly older man in the strange attire of casual workout clothes and a cowl. No cape, no tights, no Kevlar, only a silly looking cowl throwing his proportions off.

It was Bruce standing before her, but his face was as unreadable as ever bellow the layer of black. Her family, standing in a half circle around him, were nowhere near as unreadable. The stiffness of their stances betraying a seriousness and worry that stood in opposition to the message of Bruce's casual civilian attire.

Damian looked like he was still half asleep. Oh sure, the usual seriousness of a mini assassin trying to be taken seriously by his mentors was still present, but there was no denying the inherent youth in his messy bed-head.

Tim and Barbara were as hostile as ever, as had become the regular with them over the last months whenever she was in the room. The confusion and hesitance from earlier still inherent to the mould of their shoulders.

Jason and Stephanie both just looked honestly confused. There was a front of anger in Jason's stance, but anyone who truly knew him would recognise his complete confusion at being present and included in what was turning into a full bat-family meeting. Stephanie had no such front, she was just plainly confused as to what was going on.

Cassandra was as still and silent as ever. Present, attentive and just slightly more ridged than usual.

It was Tim that called into the silence of such a large space, "You took your time, didn't you."

"Don't answer that." Batman was clearly not in the mood, turning to the oversized monitor and pulling up an audio-less visual.

Suddenly, she was just as ridged as all her siblings.

"You should all be aware of what this is," was batman's calm introduction. The glance he sent her way was not at all subtle. Tim and Barbara both quickly caught on, if the abrupt guilt in their faces said anything.

"This is the portal into which the severely injured vigilante hero Starbolt fell about two years ago. It gave off some very distinct radioactive, electromagnetic and tracely magical readings, which have recently been picked up on a much smaller scale within some of the rooms of the Watchtower."

Strangely, there was no worry or warning present in Batman's voice as he announced the seeming threat.

" the best scientists we have," ( it went without saying that they were the best in the world) "have been working on this for a while, and it seems to be some kind of portal through space-time ..."

It was at this point that Jason cut the Bats off, "this seems like a pretty serious threat Old Man, why the fuck have you called us in and not your prissy Justice League?"

The glare sent Jason's way was by no means at full strength, but it was enough of a warning that he shut up. "As I was saying, traces of this space-time portal are showing up around our most secure base. It goes without saying that this is a concern. However, the most interesting part about the science of this portal seems to be that it cannot be replicated, and that it can only activate when transporting one specific type of DNA. The scientists are saying that this portal should be opening up in the next couple of hours, and probably in this room."

Rachel was shocked, but not so much that she couldn't put together the pieces Bruce was throwing at her.

" So you're saying that this portal can only transfer one person, and that it has transported them through both space and time?"

She could feel her muscles tensing up, all the stress and anguished and pain of the last couple years rising to the surface as the implications of what was to come hit her.

It was Jason that piped up again, having put the pieces together himself, "so how much of a threat is this Starbolt kid anyway, is he even gonna be alive?"

Bruce looked over at her in what essentially amounted to the Bruce/Bat version of pity as she continued to try to hold herself together.

It was Damien's dry question of "What the heck would unstable portal travel even do to an injured humanoid?" that choked a pained gasp out of her as she sunk to the floor.

Jason, Stephanie, Cassandra and Damien all looked over at her in horror, coming to the realisation that she probably knew the guy they were talking about. Bruce, Tim and Barbara were all awkwardly looking away, aware as they were of just who Starbolt had been to her.

What happened now? What happened if he came out of that portal alive? What happened if he didn't ?


	8. Bruce Watches

It was a short debrief after that, Bruce had only really wanted to call in Rachel, but Tim and Barbara had been with her, and he didn't need to cause more conflict over favouritism. After that, it had all just spiralled, eventually turning into a full family get together over something he had wanted to break to Rachel in private.

It wasn't hard to tell that she had been struggling these last couple of months. Even if he was a now more distant figure in her life, it was pretty blatant how overworked she had become. There was just nothing he could really do. Any interference from him would be taken the wrong way. And with his track record, Bruce didn't trust himself not to go too far in trying to help.

But she had been the last to arrive, and it wasn't a mission he was debriefing. Bruce tried to keep his explanation as short as possible, to avoid drawing out the experience. But even he could see how hard she was taking this. It was written on her face where the calm collected mask she wore should have been.

His other children hadn't really dealt much better, as Rachels clear struggle seeped through them.

Over the years it had become obvious that it was Rachel holding this family together. While he was the start of it, she was the foundation. She provided the stability they all needed, was the rock they all clung to. She was the only one who could encourage proper communication and healthy emotional regulation without being a total hypocrite. When any one of them had had a problem, she was the one to eventually sort it out. Rachel was the bedrock of every single healthy habit or coping mechanism in this family.

And didn't that say everything about just how much he had failed as a father? His, once tiny, eldest daughter was doing for his other children everything that he should have done for her.

But when the foundations began to rock, when Rachel was thrown off balance, the whole unit came crashing down around her. He could see her shaking now, she the wires that held them all together pulling and stretching around her. They had only snapped once before, back when he had fired her from Robin. It had taken years to create new connections, to build up again what had been lost. But these days, they generally ignored how reliant they were on her. Bruce probably ignored it the most.

Their relationship had never truly healed. Sure, she had forgiven him, and there was never anything for him to forgive of her, but they had simply never been as close as before. They couldn't. She was older, more independent, he wasn't a part of her everyday life anymore. Rachel had had other things to focus on, and only enough energy for token efforts at rebuilding a fragile bond with her foster father.

Now he wished he had pushed to spend more time rebuilding that with her. Where his bonds with Jason, Tim, Damien, Cassandra, Stephanie and even Barbara were in some of the best shape they had ever been, his relationship with Rachel was essentially non-existent, and it looked like it was about the same for everyone else with her.

There was horror written in the collective psyche of the room, as they all watched Rachel, his beloved daughter, their older sister, sink to the floor. Her breathing was so erratic, her face blanched blank, and none of them knew what to do, how to comfort her.

Bruce wasn't shocked, but he was frozen all the same. What was he meant to do now?

This was an improbable, impossible situation. The kind of thing that could only happen to people who lived such ridiculous lives as them. There was no precedent, no proper way to deal with this. His daughter's dead fiancé was about to appear any minute now. He was frozen, she was on the floor, and the rest of the family was there watching it all take place and unsure what to do.

Looking around was like looking at a painting, a frozen moment in time.

Pain, horror, sorrow, confusion splashed on canvas in blues, blacks and yellows. The ties that made them a family wound around her waist as the weight of grief pulled her to the ground. All of them pulled closer by the taught ropes, but too unsure to step forward and let them loosen.

It was this scene, this motionless painting of a moment, that was broken by the swirling thunder of the kaleidoscopic vortex. It was as if all sound had been sucked out of their ears, and at the same time, they were at the centre of an endless thunderclap. What once had been a zeta tube, now became a mass of pulsing shifting colour.

Bruce simply stared as Rachel slowly pulled herself to her feet. No one else was moving, feet seemingly stuck to the ground below them, as Rachel approached the vortex.

They had known it was coming, known what it would look like, but still fear swept over them as they watched her slow march.

Her hand was reached out before her as if to touch the illusory vortex gateway. Her hand was just beginning to disappear in its spinning colours when the muscles in her shoulders tightened. They were all behind her, unable to see what it was that she had gripped.

It was as she stepped back, a large, calloused hand entwined in hers, that the man stepped out in front of her. In their line of work, these moments were more common but no less beautiful.

The man was impressively taller than Rachel, his tan face and bright hair visible to them above her. He was looking down at her in confusion, but the way he leaned towards her, seeming to stand at a tilt told them that his trust in her was all that mattered to him in that moment.

As sound returned, the portal suddenly starting to retract in on itself, he wrapped his arms suddenly around her pulling her closer as he shifted them both out of the way. Rachel's eyes were frozen on his face, her movements robotic, as he began to look around the room. His quick assessment of them all as non-threatening left them therefore secondary to the immobile girl in his arms.

Bruce watched as who he knew to be Starbolt looked down at his daughter, a million questions in his gaze.


End file.
